Suwon

The rainy season seems to have passed, so I was able to finally get out on my bike this weekend. So I made a weekend trip to Suwon , which is home to the World Heritage Hwaseong Fortress. I've only been able to make a few runs in the last month, so my legs were a little rusty. And with the sun pounding down and the humidity in the air, it did make for a rather exhausting ride. But it was still nice to get out and see something new.

The route from Incheon is pretty straightforward. The first stop was Ansan, where I had to get some Thai food. The road into Ansan isn't very busy, but after lunch it was a different story. Going through Ansan itself takes a while, as there are a lot of intersections to stop at. Once I got out of Ansan, the road expanded and become a major transportation corridor. Instead of traffic lighted intersections, there are on-ramps and off-ramps. So it takes some patience to wait out the traffic getting on and off of the highway. Coming back, I ended up taking a different route. While it was lass crowded, it involved quite a bit of map checking and GPS reading to maintain my course.

The fortress itself is rather interesting. While it's certainly not the Great Wall of China, it does have a wide variety of structures along the route. There are numerous guard houses, observation posts, and gates along the 5.5 km route.

Here are a few of the structures along the route:

One of the gates into the old city


A view along the wall


One of the guard towers


Another view along the wall


This isn't part of the wall, but it's a church near the wall. It's one of the largest and most interesting churches I've seen in Korea.


Saturday distance: 50 km
Sunday distance: 60 km